Waimea Weekly
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Your Community Newspaper
Wednesday 6 March 2013
Page 12
Table turns heads
New football coach Page 21
Page 14 - 15
15 years of thefts
Recycle store’s constant battle
Bullerfest returns Murchison’s Daan Jimmink competes in the kayak slalom on day two of the Buller Festival. For more photos of the event visit www.waimeaweekly.co.nz. Photo: Phillip Rollo. Phillip Rollo It all started when a group of Canterbury kayakers took to the Owen River for a weekend paddle. But the Buller Festival is now one of the largest white water events in the country, and it once again showed exactly why paddlers descend from around New Zealand to experience the adrenaline rush that local rivers can offer. Speaking at the conclusion of the three day event held just outside
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of Murchison, organiser Ben Jackson says the Buller Festival made a successful return after a two year break. “The area is such a fantastic resource and it really lends itself to a lot of different events in a very small area,” he says. “It really is what it is because of where it is. It started off with a casual weekend and it gradually became an event and has now evolved into what we saw on the weekend.” The turnout was down this year compared to when it was last
held, but the skill set shown from the competitors was at an all time high, says Ben. A lot of the competitors come from Motueka and Nelson, with a good serving of Murchison kayakers, which includes Murchison Area School students. There were also paddlers from Central Otago, Auckland, Rotorua, Wellington, Hawke’s Bay and all through New Zealand. “We’ve had up to 160 competitors SEE PAGE 8
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Regular customers are getting away with theft at the Revive Reuse Shop because the money they spend outweighs the cost of the items being stolen. After-hour rubbish dumping and stolen property has marred the second hand store at the recycling centre every day for the past 15 years and its manager wonders if the constant offending will ever end, saying it is very difficult to prove who is a shoplifter despite surveillance cameras indentifying them. Manager Saul U-ren first raised concerns with facility operator Kahurangi Trust 12 years ago, but the nature of the industry means the thefts are constant, he says. “We are planning on doing more and we’ve had meetings with the council who are planning on putting street lights in any day now which will make a huge difference,” he says. “Not much can be done. The only way you can get around it is by staffing more, which is our
Phillip Rollo Reporter
editorial@waimeaweekly.co.nz
biggest problem because we’re short staffed.” The centre makes money by selling off used items that are able to be reused or recycled. There is a free area which is emptied every day. He acknowledged that the general public was probably oblivious to the fact such constant offending was going on within their community. “A lot of people don’t know. Because we’re a recycle centre you don’t get much cheaper, which is actually what we like to say. We are here for those very people, and they will shoplift from you one day and shop off us the next.” Saul says they rely so heavily on the business of regular customers, even if some of them are thieves. “The amount of money they SEE PAGE 2
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